Book Review: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson

I have just finished reading “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” after struggling with reading it for the last 2 months or so. I finally got into it a few days ago and once i was hooked, it pretty hard to put the book down!

I think it is a very good book, if a little dark at times, but then most crime novels are. I can see why the Millennium series is so popular, it is definitely an interesting read!

Without spoiling the plot for anyone who hasn’t read it yet, the story follows Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist who faces prison after losing a libel case, who is hired by the elderly Henrik Vanger, the rich CEO of a large international company, who has spent the last 40 years or so trying to discover what happened to his young niece Harriet who disappeared without a trace. Blomkvist investigates this case with little belief that they will ever find out what happened to her, but after a few important incidents, the dysfunctional Vanger family’s lives start to unravel and secrets come pouring out. Blomkvist, with the help of Lisbeth Salander, an expert hacker in her twenties and with her own troubled past, has to go through all the stories and lies to find out the truth.

It really keeps you guessing all the way through, and it is a little bit hard to follow at time, making you wonder what on earth is going on, but eventually the loose ends are all tied up and the ending is pretty good.

The characters are really well written, and Lisbeth Salander in particular brings a lot to the plot, with the theme of the novel being about the abuse of women by men. The original Swedish title of the novel was “Men who hate women”, and that certainly shows throughout the book.

Overall, for a crime novel, this is extremely well written, and although i found certain parts of the plot a little disturbing at times, it is still an excellent read, and i really recommend you try it, even if you don’t normally go for crime fiction. I am not a huge fan of crime fiction, but i always like the suspense of a mystery which you can’t wait to solve!

I give it 9/10 for originality, suspense, and a fantastic plot with great little twists and lots of great detail!